I'm Yours (Ukulele) Too cute Not to post..

I've watched this video so many times and STILL can't get enough. He is just the cutest lil shnook face doing this song! Jason Mraz would be proud... :)



Reet
Likes
Musical Shnookies

Maid of Honor...

That's right! You are now looking at a Maid of HONOR!!! That's me. :) VERY honored at the fact that I was given that role for ma beste estes wedding in April 2010! :)

It happened, Chris proposed to my awesomeness of a friend Jessicaaaaa! On 6th of December 2009! :)

I'm pretttty excited I get to be alongside Miss Jessicas very special time of life in prepping for her wedding! Very much a supa huge honor! :)

I notice mouths okay....and these guys both have supa hot mouths, so I am going to be babysitting some hot mouthed babies in a number of years time! Sweet gene mix guys, nice work! :)

Hot couple though huh! I'm a fan. Chris does get my Reet stamp of approval, and that would be a stamp hard to come by for claiming Jessica for life! I dont bust that stamp out for anybody! :) So nicely claimed Chris.

Exciting times to come - Congratulations Ngapawa! You are going to be one B U T full bride!!!!

Reet

Likes

Beste Este finding life partner!

1 down 2 ta go... :)

So two days ago I finished my last assignment for the year! SUCH a good feeling! The minute I clicked 'Submit Application' online, I clicked on my Itunes, clicked on 'Shimmy' playlist and was convieniently (NEVER can spell that word) home alone so was free to shimmy all I wanted all round my house! SUCH a good feeling! All that hard work, hours upon hours on the laptop and flicking through books, remembering/learning how to (freeken) reference, searching readings and highlighting all those main points, paraphrasing, getting in the heads of theorists, sacrificing going to social events because an assignment is due (that REALLY rips my nightie), crying because the printer doesn't (freeken) work just as you're leaving for uni and it's due in less than a hour - followed by the ink running out... (oh ma giddy aunt)...but I have DONE it. Har lay lu YAHHHH!

Year 1 of my degree OVER, 2 more to go. These shnooks are what keep me going....

I'm excited for where this degree takes me....for years my huge passion is to get on board Mercy Ships, (the worlds largest free hospital ship) that tours Africa. I was meant to be going for 2months next year in 2010 and from that trip hope to learn whether I'm a longterm server, or if short term is all it will be for me in which case I would apply to be based working with children in hospital. Things have changed, new exciting things have come up..... so that lil plan is being postponed for abit! As much as that bums me out that I wont get to see the beautiful African babies next year and have my heart break/ache for them but also experience mufussa sized happiness from being surrounded by those lil shnookies next year, I know it will happen - just not yet.

What those exciting changes are is a whole nother post....Will get onto that soon. :) Arn't all these bubbaz just so beautiful - heck they bring me SUCH joy!

TOP video clip

So this is quite a basic video clip, simple, black and white...but I'm SUCH a fan.

Def helps I'm a whole lotta keen on the song too, makes ya 'bob' ya head in a to the front but slightly to the side kinda motion.... you'll see. ;)

Enjoy the coolness of this clip and good ol' Eric!

Soulsuckers

Free..Joy..Health..Shimmmyyy

I like the words'n feelings these pictures I found represent - to me anyway.. :)

Oh yea! Makes me wanna go out and get ma shimmy on!

A wise man by the name of Nelly once said "Pop something, move something, SHAKE YA TAILFEATHER" :)

Reet
Likes
Inspiring Pictures to MOVEEEE :)

You're the Voice

An awesome song from 1986, John Farnham.
This is him singing it at a Coldplay concert in Aussie recently.
Love.This.Song. Put those lyrics to use, in acTION! :)

Cuts out for about 10seconds in the middle, but listen to the end, Coldplay joins in. :)



We have the chance to turn the pages over,
We can write what we wanna write,
We gotta make ends meet, before we get much older.

We're all someones daughter, we're all someones son.
How longggggg can we look at each other...
Down the barrel of a gun?!

You're the voice, try and understand it,
Make a noise and make it clear,
Wohhh a wohhh a wohhh ohhh x2
We're not gonna sit in silence, we're not gonna live with fear.
Wohhh a wohhh a wohhh ohhh x2

This time, you know we all can stand togetherrrrrr,
We have the power to be powerful;
Believin we can make it better...

We're all someones daughter, we're all someones son,
HOW LONGGGGG can we look at each otherrrrrrrr,
Down the barrell of a guuuuuuuun?

You're the voice, try and understand it,
Make a NOISE and make it CLEARRRRR,
Wohhh a wohhh a wohhh ohhh x2
We're not gonna sit in silence, we not gonna live with fear,
Wohhh a wohhh a wohhh ohhh x2 (repeat chorus x a jillion)


*P.S ''You're the voice!!!!!!!!!!!!!'' USE it! :)

Reet
Likes
The Power of the VOICE :)

Hosanna

Heal my heart and make it clean;

OPEN UP MY EYES TO THE THINGS UNSEEN,

Show me how to love like you, have loved me...

BREAK MY HEART WITH WHAT BREAKS YOURS;

Everything I am, in your kingdoms cause;

As I walk from earth into, Eternity.

Reet
Likes
This
Prayer

Aisling Symes 1 - Samoa 119

Today, an horrific day, where just under two hours ago, lil 2year old girl Aisling Symes was found in a Septic Tank 200m where she went missing one week ago, dead, unsure of how long she was in there, or how she got there. The area is now cornered off as a crime scene while investigations are carried out. I cannot even BEGIN to imagine the gut-wrenching agony and pain the parents are going through - the guilt of the mother from turning her back for a matter of seconds when Aisling walked away from their property in Henderson. A strong christian couple that attend a local Baptist church in Henderson.....least baby Aisling is with her Jesus in heaven now. Prayers go out to the mum and dad.....again, cannot even comprehend the pain they will be experiencing. Ohh...I just ....I just actually cant imagine it....

That is one life lost.....



I was reminded by someone though....shortly after the news came out about Aisling...that this is 'just' one life. And yet this stirred up a wholeeeeeeeee lot more media and attention and compassion from people, than the 119 - sorry incase you missed that ONE HUNDRED AND NINETEEN lives that were lost about a fortnight ago in Samoa from the Tsunami....pictured above is the burial of 7 family members. Several people burying SEVEN of their family members....thats 7 Aislings....A mum, 2 sisters, a brother, grandad, aunty and cousin! Can you IMAGINE!!!!! The man I heard on the radio...ELEVEN family members....he has NO-ONE left....ALL ELEVEN of his family members, WIPED out...


So many kiwis directly connected to Samoa with their families there, so many lives the past fortnight affected from family members over in Samoa either dead, missing, seriously injured, homeless.....


Sure we are sending lots of aid....sheets, blankets, food, money. Real awesome stuff and support we are doing.... but....



I dunno...just processing my own thoughts here.....I'm actually gut-wrenched about lil bubba Aisling...I work with children her age every day and love every one of them soo sooo soo much, would do anything for them and if anything DID happen to them, I would be a write off, buckling at the knees with overwhelmed emotion...seriously. They all mean the world to me...... so the fact they found a lil shnook their age in a septic tank....guts me to the core...oh....completely.... :'(



It just guts me 'abit' to see the hardcore-ness (I'm allowed that as a word) that this one life gets (and totally worthy of it, not underestimating it at all) but 118 MORE lives were lost, including a WHOLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE heap of lil ones her age less than two weeks ago, and that just didnt get the same response/attention/compassion/sympathy...... just hacks me a lil....suprises...not sure what....



Still processing....





Reet
Likes
The processing of thoughts...

Addicted...

Addiction - defined as:

1. The state of being enslaved to a habit or practice or to something that is psychologically or physically habit-forming.

2. The condition of being habitually or compulsively occupied with or or involved in something.

Reet Likes People Free From Addiction

Thats Amore...

The more videos I watch on Youtube about it....
The more stories I hear from people via email who have served on it....
The more I read from the book about it, written by founder Don Stephens...
The more I talk about it to family and friends...
The more I think about it...
The more I pray about it...

The more I just cant WAIT to get on board...

MERCY SHIPS.
http://mercyships.org.nz/

Togo, Africa, 2010?

Reet
Likes *scribble* Loves
Mercy Ships' Work

Prostitution

I HATE that this is legal in New Zealand. What kind of country makes that legal? Frick frick frick. AND what kinda guys actually 'use' these services. AGHHHHH!!!!

Makes me sick when I think about the guys that use them, and breaks my heart when I see a prostitute just waiting on a corner.

Came face to face with it tonight, talked to a girl my age, waiting.......

OH why do they resort to this....is it horrible and terrible for them? Are they so numb that it's just a 'ordinary' job to them, what drives them to do this....last resort? Screwed up childhood, abuse, the recession????? Pressure for finances, for all I/we know they might have a office job, where they get in their corporate gear, get their morning coffee, sit at their desk every day, but at night, they become someone else, to get the extra cash.........I just DONT know. I HATE that it's legal so much. There are so many other options out there for woman, if they only had the support around them or someone close enough to them that just cares and loves them enough to try everything they can to just....protect them from going to jobs like this.

Horrible. Ask me about tonight if you want....in person. I could have done more. I hate that I didn't, my mind hasn't stopped thinking of all the things I could have done to stop her from getting in that car, sooner. I dont understand why God didn't answer my prayers for that hour or two following, and I'm not supposed to understand, I'm beyond disappointed, way beyond. Anything could happen to her, not saying I'm miss 'Life Saver' and that any chat that I would have had with her would be like this genius life changing chat where she broke down in front of me, admitted it was a last resort, pleaded for help, I find her a job or course to do, somewhere cheap to live, financial support and get her on an awesome new path of life.....as amazing as that would have been....it could have been totally possible...jesus could have given me all the right words to pull on her heartstrings and that could have happened. Could have. Didn't.

Too late....

Insomnia

Sooooo it's 5:01am, I have to get up in 2hours to get ready for work.
I havn't slept yet....got into bed at midnight, but am WIDEEE awake. WIDE awake.
The birds have been chriping since THREE a.m.......seems they dont sleep either - punks.
I dont know how my body actually puts up with my no sleep, this is SUCH a regular occurence.

Hmmmm, things I have thought about tonight/this morning.....
contemplating going for a run...
what i would do if i won a million dollars, jess, joanna and amie would be pretty lucky. :)
my brothers wedding
mercy ships
weight loss
things coming up for uni
jesus
prayer
my uni gurls
among other things....

I want sleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep.

I think i'm going to invest in some herbals tomorrow, see how those puppies work.
Before i resort to the hardcore sleeping pills.

Would a bb gun hurt a bird?...... ;)
I swear with the amount of birds that live in the tree on my driveway I could start up a couple of avaries aye. Their 'voice boxes' should be on mute from midnight to 7am. A law among feathered creatures.

OK, happy sleeping all you regular sleepers. Appreciate those zzzzzz's you be gettin'. :)

Reet
Likes
SLEEEEEEEEP

101 Things You Should Do Before Going To Heaven - No.5 - Clean Someone Else's Toilet

On the road to heaven, there are some potholes - unpleasant jobs that are part of living in this not-yet-perfect world. Some people try to avoid them. Others grit their teeth and dive right in. Still others delegate, not because they can't do what's needed, but because they won't. They feel ''dirty jobs'' such as these are not worth of their time. Occasionally there are people who break all the conventional rules. They not only do their own dirty jobs, but they volenterr to help others with theirs. The sense of community, service and sacrifice these people share captures a little of the spirit of your future home in heaven.

Go ahead and be one of these ''oddballs'' here on Earth. (You'll fit right in when you get to heaven) Volenteer to clean someone else's toilet. Wash dishes at a homeless shelter. Dig latrines at a church camp. Help with disaster relief in a third world country....not because you have to but because you want to love others in practical, personal, Christlike ways.

When Jesus washes the feet of his disciples at the Last Supper, he was doing a ''dirty'' job. Cleaning off the dust, dung and sweat from sandled feet was something only servants were expected to do. But Jesus loved his followers so much that he was willing to put their comfort and needs before his own. That's what real love is all about.

What you do to serve others isn't as important as the heart with which you do it. The amazing thing is that once you start serving others, you'll find that even a ''dirty'' job wont feel dirty anymore. It may still be challening, tedious, or tiring, but the satisfaction you'll recieve by helping others will make it feel more like a blessing than a chore, nothing like a pothole at all. The End.

Go on, get ya hands dirty! :) Today is RAK day! Random Acts of Kindess Day. This kinda thing definitely shouldn't be a annual day people recognise, should be a daily thing we're doing without even thinking......agree with what it says, sometimes it might still be challenging, tedious and tiring - it's so much easier to just pretend you didn't see it...keep driving, or look the other way, or turn around, or not reply to a request.....but do it anyway. Turn around, stop, reply to the request, volenteer, acknowledge and totally do it. Becomes a habit of the heart pretty dang quickly. And to sound as cheesy as these crazy Americans, the satisfaction totally comes. :) Dooooo itttttttt. :)

Reet

Likes

Servant Hearted...Hearts.

101 Things You Should Do Before Going To Heaven - No.7 - Get Comfortable In Your Own Skin

So a few months ago I said I'd bought a book called '101 things you should do before you go to heaven'.

The three latest entries I've read are my faves so far...I'll post one of them tonight:

Number 7: Get Comfortable In Your Own Skin

When you get a new pair of shoes, the only way to make them comfortable is to break them in. The same goes for your body. God has given you a one-of-a-kind physical form. He wove it together just for you and created it to reflect His glorious image. God intertwined both beauty and wander into it, inside and out. But your body is not an art object to be put on a pillar and admired. It's a tool that the real you, the eternal part of you that loves and creates and hopes and dreams and worships, uses while you're on this earth. Once you get to heaven, you'll recieve a new body-one that wont break down or wear out. But you're not there yet. So the more comfortable you are in the body you have right now, the better you'll be able to use it and enjoy it as each day here on earth unfolds.

You dont break in a new body by mistreating it. You need to take care of it, like any tool, so it can do its job well and last a long time. You break in a body by getting off the couch and becoming active whenever you get the chance. Get down on the floor and play with a child. Use your muscles to help your new neighbours move into their house. Put on a swimsuit and get some exercise, no matter what size that swimsuit is. Jump and skip and life and kneel, even if you jiggle and wiggle and need help getting up.

The less self-conscious you are, the better job you'll do at breaking in your body and becoming confortable with who you are and how you're made. So, ask God to help you put your inhibitions aside. Stop comparing yourself to others. Get up and get moving. There are places in this world where only a tool like you can do the job.

Reet

Likes

Temporary Earthly Bodies

Colours - Amos Lee

My fave singer - Amos Lee.

Beautiful singer (yep I said the 'B' word). Absoloutely amazing songwriter.

Check him out on youtube, especially some of his podcasts when you get to know his songs, just to get the story behind the lyrics'n songs, love hearing about them, such good reason/feeling/stories behind em.

If I could meet anyone in the world, it'd be Amos, not to be some freako fan being a drooling mess over him.....just to talk. Seriously...from watching his podcasts, would just be good conversation - talking about stories and everything behind the songs....sounds like he's got a real good heart aye, totally modest, doesn't have the 'hollywood ego' that talent seems to do to people. Real genuine straight up guy......well thats what comes across in the podcasts anyway. Anyway, this is one of my faves.....

If your a listener on lyrics like me...and dont just listen with deaf ears (it can be done, listening without actually...listening)...check out his songs 'soul suckers'....and 'freedom'...heck there are heaps....just ask me.
Check Amos out here though. :)



Reet
Likes
Modesty in Talented Ppl

Grace

I am not what I ought to be. I am not what I want to be. I am not what I hope to be. But still, I am not what I used to be. And by the grace of God, I am what I am.
- John Newton

Reet
Likes
Progress/Present/Improvement

Suffering

I just dont get it.....



Why? Probably the most frequently used word these days.

So much pain in the world, and where do you go about starting to help? You start with ones closest to you, the community around you, but what about all the rest, there will never be enough people to help everyone else. It will never stop. Too many questions. Not enough answers. Confused. Helpless? More confused. Sometimes I look on Youtube, and look at the thousands upon thousands of 'In memory of' videos there are, of young adults, children, babies who have died through disease, car acccidents, and suicide. Children as young as 10 committing suicide just from bullying at school. What is that? Then parents who lost all three of their children in a car accident, all younger than 5. Why them? Why anyone? I googled 'images' to put up here, I searched abortion to hopefully get some poster about it, instead the first picture that was there, was a baby that had been removed from the womb through abortion, horrific. Fully formed beautiful baby. Just miniscule. 19,000 of these are done in NEW ZEALAND a YEAR. Whats up with that? 19,000 babies who dont even get a chance at life? We have one of the highest rates of suicide in New Zealand too, why? Partners who cheat on their partners, whyyyy? I dunno, been running these things through my head. I just dont get it. This isn't me being morbid and depressing, although none of this is exactly laughable, but it's just questioning and just.....not knowing or understanding. I just dont....get it.

Reet

Likes

Heaven

Jetty Love

I dont know what it is about Jettys.

But I am a serious fan of them.

Sitting on the end of one of those with one, or two, other people, just chillaxin, chatting. Love it. Whether I've actually DONE it before is another story, but in my brain? Soooo goood. :)

NOT such a fan of docks when its middle of the day and a whole bunch of fisherman are there casting their rods, chucking gutted fish into their chillybins, seagulls going ca-razyyyy trying to get at em. Slight mood killer. BUT when its all quiet like, and all secluded, such a fan.

....And normally Jettys are all cold-ish, especially at night, so your all rugged up in ya gears, squishing together to keep warm and cosy, and just.....chat. Jettys + cosy + chatting + sweet views = good times.

Reet Likes Jettys

Dont Think Of A Pink Elephant

Tell me you didn't think of a Pink Elephant. If we tell ourselves not to think about something, in my case anyway, it ends up being the ONLY thing I think about. When I give myself restrictions in certain areas of my life, I usually wanna barge on through those restrictions and break em down so they dont exsist no more, usually ending up worse than what I was to begin with.......

So the area of my life relating to these things is...Kai. I've found last week I didn't do nearly as good in my Rawness as I did in my first two weeks. The first two weeks were transition weeks, so my mentality was kinda 'eat as much fruit and rawness as you can, but if you slip up its ok, and for the next two weeks, have maybe one cooked meal a day, rara'........so was wanting to do my best, but allowing myself the freedom in having whatever cooked I wanted, if i felt like it, but i did SO good - yea I still had a cooked meal most nights, but some nights I just didnt, cos I knew I could have it if i wanted to, my kinda 'want' for it wasn't really there, wasn't a big deal. BUT last week, cos I put the rule in place for 'no cooked' and 'all raw' and 'not allowed' and restrictions and 'dont dont dont', all I wanted was the very things I had told myself I wasn't 'allowed'.......SO this week, I'm getting the 'transitional' mentality back.

Tonight I bought a few packs of soup, so I'll have soup for dinner from now on, for something to defrost ma insides when I get home from work. Until I find a sweet recipe and have/make the time to make my OWN soup, which would be farrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr more nutrient rich being homemade, yummmm. Winter is a toad. I love it, but in terms of wanting just nice warm carbilicious food, its a total toad. :) At work most mornings, for morning tea, the cook serves grilled cheese on toast, it looks so good - I just want to be the healthiest I can be ya know.

Last night at church, they said about looking after your body, looking after what God gave you and respecting it and treating it right so its at its peak to win the race. So I wanna play my part and try as often as I possibly can to only put real high quality food into my body. My taste buds are supa big fans of the crapppppp foods that have no benefits to our bodys at alllllllllllllllll, chocolate, lollies, cheese toasties, carbs carbs carbs, sugar sugar sugar...etc. And I'm sure God would be down with us enjoing them OCCASIONALLY, but eating it to the point where we're rugged and looking numpty and we're not healthy, we're lethargic and getting sicknessess due to eating unhealthy and poor exercise, running out of breath after basic everyday activities, obesity - I think he'd draw the line somewhere then zap you into a fruit shop/orchard. :) Right this second a thought came to me....If someone gave you this real cool present, then while they were there and overtime you just totally disrespected it, right in front of them sometimes, throwing it on the ground, walking on top of it, putting drinks on top of it, not moving mess away from it, so it gets destroyed and stained, not cleaning it, it would soon look pretty rugged and would take aLOT to get it back to its original 'just like new' state again, not only that, but your friend would be feeling pretttttty lame, since he gave you this AWESOME gift and you just treated it like crap with no respect at all. Isn't that the same with God giving us our bodies, like he's blessed us with them, so if we treat them like crap, he's gonna feel pretty guts about it and we're gonna suffer the consequences of not looking after our bodies, and we have no-one to blame but ourselves if we're eating fast food more than we eat fruit and veg, if we drink fizzy and coffee more than we drink water and if the most exercise we do each day is to the letterbox and back etc. So this is why I'm trying real hard to eat the best that I can, I just wanna look healthy and be real healthy too - cos when I was doing 2months of raw end of last year/beginning of this year, I have never felt so amazing in my whole life. I dunno, I'm still working it all out, I dont wanna be some freaky anal person about food, I've seen that and I hate that. I just want a healthy balance, eating consistently well, most of the time. A work in progress. :)

Reet Likes Self-discovery

101 Things You Should Do Before Going To Heaven

So I had a visit to the Manna Store today! I could actually spend hours in that place - last time I went I DID spend hours in there...without realising - then came back to my car to find a friendly parking ticket from the generous parking warden I attempt to love so much. Today I wasn't able to spend hours because someone else was with me. I ended up walking away with about 5 cheap but AWESOME picture books for my neice....my fave was this book: (I've posted just a few of the pages on here - it's pretty cool, real easy for someone like my neice to understand what happened back then) :)...

Then the one book I bought for me, pictured below '101 Things You Should Do Before Going To Heaven'....I just wanna copy down what the opening intro page says.....I think it's one of the coolest intro's to a book I've read:

'If you are a Christian, you can look forward to a magnificent eternity in heaven and your arrival there will be an undescribable homecoming. A new beginning. A new body. A new intimacy with God. A new life - one without end. No more pain. No more tears. No more sun or moon, because God's own glory will provide enough light. Although God hasn't provided you with a crystal-clear picture of what your eternal home will be like, you can be sure it will exceed your wildest dreams. It will be what you heart has always longed for here on earth but could never quite touch. It will be paradise in every sense of the word. But you're not there yet.

You may take the journey home tonight, tomorrow, or years down the road. This book you hold in your hands, 101 Things You Should Do Before Going to Heaven, was written to help you prepare for your arrival in heaven by making the most of every day God has set aside for you here on earth. Take hold of the wonderful adventure God has planned for your life. And if you have not yet done so, take hold of His grace, forgiveness, and unfailing love. Then go out there and really live. There's a wild and wondeful world that's longing to catch a glimpse of God - and heaven - through you.'

Pretty cool aye! It's mainly the first bit I like, any talk about heaven is pretty much superior talk, love it. But yea, definitely one of the cooler intros, made me buy it anyway. :) I also really wanted this cross with Hebrews 11:1,6 on it, but so pricey. eek. When I start reading this book, I'll post ma fave of the 101 Things the authors suggest you should do, as I go. :)

Reet.Likes.Manna Store Books.

Goji Goodness

What The Dang Is A Goji Berry?

WELL, a Goji Berry is a shrivelled up raisin lookin thing, cept RED! It's found growin on evergreen shrubs, in subtropical places round China, Mongolia and within the Himalayas in Tibet!

WHY would you wanna eat this nasty lookin shrivelled thing?

Why WOULDN'T you is the question! Goji berries are SUUUUUPA high in antioxidents...it's got some goood quality thangs in it, one in particular is 'zeaxanthin' - one of 'zeaxanthins' key thingees is to protect the retina of the eye, yay for vision! Studies say by having foods containing Zeaxanthin may decrease the risk of people aged 65 years plus develop AMD (age related macular degeneration) the leading cause of blindness and loss of sight in that age group. Woh siz.

Chinese Herbal Doctors Know Their Stuff....Would THEY use Goji Berries?

Heck YEA they would! They DO! Only for the past 6,000 (!!!) years! Even Herbal doctors in Tibet and India, thats a long time! Some of the reasons these herbal doctors have used Goji Berries and its juice is to:

• Improve Circulation
• Strengthen yo legs
• Crank your immunity up
• Help your eyesight
• Protect your friend 'the liver'
• Boost your....(whisper) sex drive...
• Improve Longevity - no harm in sticking around abit longer aye.

What Medical Tests Have Been Done On Goji Berries?

Hmmm...so far, only a few. SEVERAL 'test-tube' studies have been done prove goji has antioxidents AND that goji extracts MAY prevent the growth of cancer cells, reduce blood glucose and reduce cholestorol levels, when eaten raw. The fact they used the word MAY kills alot of excitment of this 'test-tube' study which would be a whole lot more exciting if the word 'may' just wasn't there.......BUT a study of cancer patients were followed, and the 79 that were having goji juice and raw goji berries all rssonded a whole heap better to treatment than those who had no goji in their diets.

So, I have me a pack of goji berries, pretty crazy expensive, and taste like disgustingness in a berry form, BUT I munch them all up with some raw cacao beans in a teeny tiny grinder thingee, with some water and a banana, otherwise those lil hardnut berrys dont munch up. THEN I chuck all that glorious muck into my big ol mufussa sized blender, full of fruity and spinich muck, then mmmmmmmm mmmmmmmmmmm so good! Brown slop with Goji Goodness, soooo good for ya! :) Do it! :)

Reet Likes Goji

Hippocrates

Let food be thy medicine.
- Hippocrates.

Also quoted as...

'Our food should be our medicine, our medicine should be our food'.
- Hippocrates

Totally.


Reet
Likes
Hippocrates

Day 4 - Heaven in a Blender

Agh, so I've got 7mins to get to work, but I didn't wanna forget about the heaven that is in the cup im ...spooning from this morning for breakfast....

This morning I got up and made one of my green smoothies - ingredients:

half a pack of spinich (spinich is neutral, so you cant actually taste it in a smoothie)
2 bananas
1 apple
2 kiwifruit
2 handfuls of frozen blackberries
1/3 of a mango
2 small clumps of raw coconut meat

OHHHHHHHH myyyyyyyyyyy goodness - who would have thought brown thick muck could taste so GOOD? IT is actually so so so good! Even on this fa REEEEZING morning where I see my fingers moving but I cant actually feel them, they are so FROZEN!

I'm feeling quite 'hot right now', I'm wearing my baggy work pants (gota be slightly scruff when working with kids in a kindy, spew, paint, poo, the possibility of what you'll be covered in each day) with thermal pants underneath - knee high socks on top of that...then a singlet thermal and a long sleeve thermal then my work shirt....ohhh yeaaaaaa, working it. ;)

K, back to my smoothie......soooooooooooooooooooooo tastyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy.
2mins to get to work....

Reet
Likes
Tasty Brown Muck

Day 2 and 3 - Raw

It is soooooooo cold aye - I'm sure this is the coldest winter we have had. WHICH makes raw quiiite hard, seeming as its all cold food if you dont have a dehydrator, or not too clued up on recipes, as yet.

Day 1 and 2 went really well - raw for the whole day -then a 'cooked' meal at night, although i dont even know the extent of its cooked-ness....it was just a cup of chilli con carne with tuna through it - was real good. :)

Today, Day 3, I resisted some serious urges - cakes, biscuits and crackers were offered to me - crazy the power food has over you aye, just the habits we have with reaching out and grabbing something when its offered to us, where as, if it had never been offered, we wouldn't have thought about it in the first place........we see, we want. SO, i managed to fight off those urges, and then grabbed some popcorn which I have never liked, but this hit the spot. I've just asked peeps on one of my trusty websites of Rawists about popcorn, and several of them have said popcorn was the last thing they ate, before going 100% Raw, so thats cool to know. Someone else mentioned that there was a cauliflower version of popcorn, where you cut it very finely then put it in a bag with some vege stock and spices, then stick it in the dehydrator, then munch on it from outta the bag............always something to try, if i can ever find a high quality dehydrator in NZ that doesn't cost the Earth - have a feeling i'm going to have to get one shipped over from Auzzie though. Eeeek....

BUT when I got home, there were hot chips, and I didn't resist those - before ya knew it, I had a bowl of them in my puku. Uncool, but still - although I say I'm going to be having one cooked meal a day, hot chips is definitely not that cooked meal I had in mind.

Because Raw isn't a DIET....I hate that word, and its just a lame word for a 'temporary' way of doing something, that once you get to your 'goal' you head back to your original way of eating, and lack of exercise to go BACK to what you were before you started on the DIET, then just repeat it again and again and again........ THAT is why RAW is not a diet.....defintiely a LIFESTYLE......so because a change in LIFESTYLE doesn't happen too quickly - changing the decades of routine, patterns and bad habits is going to take a while, involve alot of screw ups, alot of mistakes and lessons learnt, re-learning your strengths and weaknessess, and yea..........all that jazz - so hot chips tonight, not cool at all, BUT thats ok - they wern't even good - I would have much prefered a Essene (raw) bun, or a nori roll, but without a CAR still (Because mine was written off a month ago) i havn't been able to get my seaweed or other sweet goodness ingredients. AND I feel grose all heavy like and lazy, from eating those chips, so each time I eat something tragic like that, I'll learn more and more each time how RANK i feel after it, and that will hopefully help me for the next time to resist or choose a healthier option.

So Day 4 tomorrow, I know I'll be having a cooked meal tomorrow night, because its my good friend Camerons farewell partayyyy dinner at a restaurant (he's leaving for wellington, boooo). So lots of meat and veges. But thats ok, lots of fruit through the day, raw milkshake in the morning, if not that, then a green smoothie (bought 2bags of spinich and rocket last night for ma smoothies, yummm, mangoes and pineapple too, mmm mmmm), so it'll be a good day. I need all the fruit and veges I can get - need some serious brainpower for the weekend when I'll be starting and finishing an assignment that is due next week.

Reet
Likes
Lifestyle changes

Day 1 - Rawsomeness

So Day 1 of 12week raw challenge is finished. Success.

Feelin goooood.

I dont know why I came off it when I started raw last year (November 08). After a few months of looking into it, investigating online, talking to people online, checking out youtube, raw websites, it looked so good! So did abit of a transitioning period, went through some crazy detox time - headaches, sleeping for extra long amounts of time, then not sleeping at all, getting dizzy, mad cravings, mood swings, - to come out the other side feeling better than I'd ever felt my ENTIRE LIFE- mentally and physically. I actually felt amazing aye, it was ridiculous the change I felt, SO GOOD. The food was INCREDIBLE and I hadn't even learnt any (gormet) recipes, I just did the basic Nori Rolls, Green smoothies, Fruit smoothies, and Fresh fruit and veg'n salads..nothing fancy, just live, natural raw foods. SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO tasty - esp in Summer - fresh plums, peaches, nectarines, berries, strawberries, pineapple, yummmmmmmmmmmm!

So, why I slowly eased back into the SAD (Standard American Diet) way of eating who knows...I lasted through christmas even, with all that tasty looking christmas kai that only gets busted out once a year. Meanwhile, I've been feeling grottier again, physically and mentally, health has deterroriated, skin is dry again, also the spots related to my condition are getting their red colouring back again (not good), my leg is getting worse, mentality deterroriating............suck suck suck. Oh the best of all, i'm putting on the weight i lost - oh glory glory.

SO, after a fun weekend in Wellington for Queens birthday, and NO raw food, and a wholeeeeeee lotta stomach cramps and not fun times, today is the day I have started a 12week raw challenge with my good friend Hannah Mac (http://www.aychblog.com/). Transition time starts again - the intention is to have just the one cooked meal a day, most likely dinner with it being winter and so freakishly cold. After the first two weeks I reassess.

I have no doubts that I will mess up now and again, or have days where my raw intake drops abit for different reasons, but it's not gonna be 'Monday' when i start again, or 'next week' or 'next month', it'll be the following morning. I'm not sure i'll ever be 100% Rawist, I'd love to think so, and maybe some day I will - as I look more into it, and view more videos on raw, read more books and blogs, talk to more rawists and natural doctors, hear testimonies, and see evidence AND I have experienced it firsthand, it seems more and more beneficial to have the highest raw intake possible....just makes sense.

I'm salivating over the recipes I've just checked out, and am actually craving my nori roll tomorrow, my fruit smoothie, and my raw milkshake in the morning. I'll fill you in on the ingredients in the DEEEELICIOUS raw milkshakes I have every morning - straight from the cow baby, soooooooooooooooooooooooo good!

Looking fwd to Day 2 - yummmmmmmmmmmm!

Reet
Likes
Starting Over